Fabulous Fun... Snowboarding for Women (or men!)
by: Lauren Traub Teton
Editor - SnowBoardSecrets.com
Why don’t more
women over the age of 30 take up snowboarding? It is Fabulous
Fun! Perhaps you haven’t tried it because you have heard that
you will fall down a lot when learning. True. But it is possible
to learn without pain. Pain and injury avoidance techniques for
snowboarding are invaluable but not well known. If you know how,
you can avoid the two biggest mistakes that first time
snowboarders make. A positive experience your first few times
out will make you more likely to stick out the hard times until
you learn enough to really have fun!
“There’s no reason that adults shouldn’t snowboard and have as
much fun as kids” says self-proclaimed Snowboard Evangelist
Lauren Traub Teton who admits to being “in her 40s”. “I have
been riding a snowboard for four years, and am having the most
fun of my life!”
She feels that the only thing stopping “oldsters” (in their
mid-30s and up) from embracing snowboarding in a big way are the
inevitable hard falls experienced during the short steep
learning curve. She says “there are easy ways to avoid the pain.
They are just not well known.”
The reason “snowboard pain avoidance” is not more widely
discussed has to do with the history of snowboarding. To some
snowboarders, pain and injury are cool. This is obvious if you
the read the hundreds of war stories on snowboard websites.
This viewpoint has its roots in the fact that snowboarding is
stylistically a descendant of skateboarding and embraces some of
the same traditions. For example, doing a grab, where the rider
reaches down and grabs the board while airborne, is more of a
necessity in skating than in snowboarding, because the
skateboard is not attached to the feet. But grabs have morphed
into a popular trick and a way to show style in snowboarding
too.
The other tradition that has carried over from skating is the
tradition of pain. In skateboarding, injury from accidental
impact with the hard ground is a common occurrence and gives a
skater bragging rights (as well as bruises and breaks.). A lot
of skaters are also snowboarders, and so the tradition of
absorbing pain as part of “paying dues” remains.
Another factor keeping some adults away from snowboarding may be
the reputation for wildness on the slopes that snowboarders
have. That probably comes from the fact that when the equipment
was first invented, it was technologically primitive, with
little ability to steer or stop. That’s how snowboarding got its
image as an extreme sport and snowboarders got their reputation
as outlaws of the snow. Now snowboards have evolved
technologically into precision devices that can turn and stop
easily, when operated under control.
With older snowboarders hitting the slopes, the culture of
injury and pain has outlived it’s origins. Adults don’t equate
injuries with status. People who start riding as adults want to
stay upright and uninjured. Some skiers switch over because it
seems like more fun and less stress on the knees. Again, the
goal is to stay whole!
I learned by trial, error and luck how to avoid injury. In fact,
a fine young gentleman working at the guest services desk on
Whistler Mountain (B.C.) offered to let me borrow his
Rollerblade wrist guards and knee pads, one day when I was
learning, and I was hooked on safety and comfort from that
moment.
Don’t make the two biggest mistakes new snowboarders often make
when you do decide to take up this wonderful sport. To be safe,
comfortable, and happy, you MUST
Take a lesson given by a professional your first time out.
and
You MUST wear padding, on your knees, butt, and wrists.
Come now, why try to reinvent the wheel? If you want to learn to
snowboard, then a snowboard lesson with a trained instructor
will teach you IMPORTANT basic snowboarding skills that you will
use every day for the rest of your riding life.
So learn them right, right from the start. Forget about teaching
yourself how to get on and off a lift safely on a board. This is
what teachers are for.
And the padding is a must because falling is an inevitable part
of the learning process. You WILL fall at first. But if you are
padded properly, you will not have to hurt yourself. And don’t
chuck the padding once you have mastered the basics. You will
need it when you progress to jumping and tricks!
About the author:
For Lauren Traub Teton, snowboarding is the only sport she has
ever been successful at. She loves to ride the halfpipe, race,
and jump (a little!). She writes the popular free “Snowboard
Szine” newsletter. Sign up at SnowboardSecrets
site and receive “16 Secrets for Successful Snowboarding.”
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